Epic Street Food of Vietnam! Banh Khot in Vũng Tàu

This is so cool. I mean, it's incredible. I can't even imagine trying to pull this off in the West. Today on the Best Ever Food Review Show, I'm in Vung Tau, seeking out a famous tasty treat with a bona fide Vietnam expert. It's him. Andrew, this is my first time in Vung Tau. Two hours from Ho Chi Minh City. What is special about this place? It's the closest beach town to Ho Chi Minh City. So it's a popular beach or weekend getaway for mainly Vietnamese tourists. Sorry, we have to go. We have to keep moving because people stay interested that way. Okay. The real reason to come to Vung Tau is the banh cot. Banh cot? Let's learn about that in the next shot. Dude, this looks insane. So they've got these two huge cupcake tins. What are they pouring into there? It's just rice flour. So rice flour. They have a prawner. They have a special lady. We just have this team of cheese working on the banh cot. So it's just rice flour batter. Yeah, it gets a bit of yellow because it has turmeric in it. And then they just throw a prawn or a shrimp on top. They start it here to get it salted. Yeah, and they rotate it over. I don't know why, maybe it's crispier over here. This one's like the deep-fried. The deep-fried. It's just so cool. I mean, it's incredible. I can't even imagine trying to pull this off in the West. This is why no one eats banh cot in Australia. I mean, you just can't have an operation like this running. Oh my god, it's so hot too. It's crazy. Fired directly under these huge tins, all these women are wearing blankets over. It's already super hot, and they're wearing blankets over their legs to block from all the heat. It's like a steel foundry, but they're making delicious food instead of eye beans. These are tiny. How many of these do you need to eat? I knock these things out like sushi rolls. I can crank through a couple hundred. Well, maybe not. A couple hundred. We'll try, we'll try. Always with so many Vietnamese meals, there's herbs, fresh herbs on the table. Can you walk me through what's going on here? Some of these should be pretty familiar. We've got, that's mint. Okay, let me eat all of them as you describe them. Mint. In case you don't have gum, you're good to go. The Thai basil. Thai basil. This one's going to be a little bit funky. So this one is called Rao Yip Ka. Try it first. Okay. It's going to be a little funky. Try it. Oh. It's almost a little fishy. It's bitter. So the people call this fish herb or something like that. Yeah. But I think it should be called wet dog herb. I smell the wet dog. It's very controversial. And I smell the fish. Beware of this one. Emily. Maybe you should get in from here. Come on. Yeah. Check out that teamwork. So we have the Banh Khot. We have the shredded papaya. Yep. And herbs. And is this fish sauce? This is fish sauce. Yeah. And how do we assemble it? We're going to put some of the papaya in with the fish sauce. Okay. Maybe chili if you're after it. Okay. Then we're going to use the vegetables as a wrap. I go with a rather large portion of the papaya and the nuoc mam. A hefty portion of chili. Oh, dang. You want some? I'll take a little chili because I'm not scared. A very small amount because I am a little scared. Oh, it singes the nostrils. Now, really quick. What gives you the authority to talk about any Vietnamese food? I mean, you are just some white guy. I am pretty much just some white guy. But I have eaten a few Vietnamese meals along the way. All right. How many times have you eaten this? In Vung Tau? Three times. Three times in Vung Tau. But every time you leave, how many orders of this do you take home? A fair few. Maybe ten or so. Yeah, that's amazing. So every time you come as you're leaving, because you know you won't be back here for a while, you get ten orders of this to-go. This is a pilgrimage. You cannot find banh cot this good in Saigon. We're going to start with the base layer. I want a bigger leaf here. There's lettuce and there's mustard leaf. Let's put a banh cot on there. They put on this kind of orange powder. Do you know what the orange powder is? I think it's shredded prawn. I think it's more prawn. Maximum nuoc mam saturation. The crunch remains. Crunch will remain. And you can spoon out some of your papaya as well. Okay. And we're going to top it with some of the herbs. Get a bit of a mix and maybe a couple of leaves of the mint, some of the basil if you can find it. So just wrap that bad boy up. Okay. We're going to dunk one more time. Wow, that's a lot of dunking. I know. This is where it's happening, inside my mouth. It's where it tastes the best. Thank you. Dude, it's so good. You have the heavy fried element, which I would be fine just eating that. But when you mix it with the papaya and some greens, it actually tastes light and a bit refreshing. There's a lot of food you wrap like this. Banh xeo, bo la la. This is it for me. This is the pinnacle of lettuce-wrapped food. And really, that kind of meal, that kind of interactive meal is my absolute favorite because it's so boring the way we dine in the U.S. You rock up at the Applebee's. The waiter comes with a big smile on the menu. You get 17 Diet Cokes while you wait for 15 minutes for your overdone steak to arrive. And then you scarf it down in five minutes. And they're like, you want dessert? And you're like, well, I already hate myself, so I guess. And then you eat a terrible sugary dessert and then you leave ashamed and you didn't even have that good of a time. In this, you actually get to interact with the food. You build it at the table so you can be drinking, making food, talking the entire time instead of just waiting for a course to arrive. I'm gonna eat about 100 more of these. For you guys, if you are interested in this kind of insider Vietnam foodie experience, please hit up One Trip. They're the ones who made this video possible. They're putting on awesome food tours in Hoi An and Saigon. I've done it myself. I had a great time. If you are interested, links are in the info box down below. I'll see you next week. Peace.